Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A(Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D
Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V.(P.G) College, Roorkee, India
On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be a dead language in the most common usage of the term.
—Hanneder
The language of the Indo-Aryans should be of special interest to us, for Sanskrit is one of the oldest in that “Indo-European” group of languages to which our own speech belongs. When a language is spoken by unqualified people the pronunciation of the word changes to some extent; and when these words travel by word of mouth to another region of the land, with the gap of some generations, it permanently changes its form and shape to some extent. We feel for a moment a strange sense of cultural continuity across great stretches of time and space when we observe the similarity in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and English of the numerals, the family terms, and those insinuating little words that, by some oversight of the moralists, have been called the copulative verb. Cf. English one, two, three, four, five with Sanskrit ek, dwee, tree, chatoor, panch;Latin unus, duo, tres, quattuor, quinque; Greek heis, duo, tria, tettara, pente. (Quattuorbecomes four, as Latin quercus becomes fir.) Or cf. English am, art, is with Sanskrit asmi, asi, asti; Latin sum, es, est; C -eek eimi, ei, esti.
Some examples of the correlation:
Old Persian Sanskrit Greek Latin German English
bar bhri fcrein ferre fuhren bear
bratar bhratar phrater frater Brudcr brother
eta stha istemi sto stchcn stand
matar matar meter mater Mutter mother
nama nama onoma nomen Nahmc name
napat napat anepsios nepos Neffe nephew
Pitar pitar pater pater Vater father
Grimm’s Law, which formulated the changes effected in the consonants of a word through the different vocal habits of separated peoples, has revealed to us more fully the surprising kinship o Sanskrit with our own tongue. The law may be roughly summarized by saying that in most cases:
1. Sanskrit k (as in kratu, power) corresponds to Greek k (kartos, strength), Latin c
or qu (cornu, horn), German h, g or k (hart), and English h, g or f (hard);
2. Skt. g or j (as in jan, to beget), corresponds to Gk. g (genos, race), L. g (genus),
Ger. cb or k (kind, child), E. k (kin)-,
3. Skt. gb or h (as in by as, yesterday), corresponds to Gk. ch (chthes), L. h, f, g, or v
(heri), Ger. k or g (gestern), E. g or y (yesterday);
4. Skt. t (as in tar, to cross) corresponds to Gk. t (terma, end), L. t (ter-minus), Ger.
d (durch, through), E. tb or d (through);
5. Skt. d (as in das, ten) corresponds to Gk. d (deka), L. d (decent), Ger. z (zehn),
E. t (ten);
6. Skt. dh or h (as in dha, to place or put) corresponds to Gk. tb (ti-the-mi, I place),
L. f y dorb (fa-cere, do), Ger. t (tun, do), E. d (do, deed);
7 Skt. p (as in patana, feather) corresponds to Gk. p (pteros, wing), L. p (penna,
feather), Ger. f or v (feder), E. f or b (feather);
8. Skt. bh (as in bhri, to bear) corresponds to Gk. ph (pherein), L. f or b (fero), Ger.
p, / or ph (fahren), E. b or p (bear, birth, brother, etc.).
Few examples:
aṭṭaka - attic , an apartment on the roof
krūra - cruel
ḍimbha - dumb an idiot, an infant
gou- cow
hantṛ - hunter a slayer, killer
kuka - cook,a cook
lok - look,to see,
mad- mad drunk
masa - mass measure
mith - meet to unite, pair,
maṇi - money jewel, gem, pearl (also fig.)
pres- preṣs to drive on, urge, impel
prauḍha - proud, arrogant, confident, bold, audacious, impudent
rīti- rite, custom, practice, method, manner
sāda - sad , sinking down, exhaustion, weariness
santa - saint successful, effectual, valid
sakala - scale consisting of parts, divisible
śoka shock,sorrow,
sūri - Sir,a learned man, sage
samartha - smart,very strong or powerful, competent, capable of. able to
spaś - spy,one who looks , a watcher,
jhampa - jump
ūrj - urge,to strengthen, invigorate
van – win,to conquer,
vaś - wish
tul – toll,to lift up, raise
tas - toss,to throw
vahana – wagon a square chariot with a pole
Few examples with amazing etymological similarity
BANDH, “bind around” (BIND, BAND, BANDAGE)
BHUUTI, “wealth, fortune”.. BOOTY/BUTY, “anything
DANTA, “tooth” (DENTURE, INDENT)
MANU, “man”.
MUUSH, “mouse”
NAS, “nose” (NOSTRIL, NASAL)
NAU, “ship” akin to NAVYA (NAVY, NAVIGATE, NAUTICAL)
NAVA, “new”
PAD, “foot PEDESTRIAN, “footwalker”; PEDATE, “having feet”;
PATHA, “path”
SARPA, “serpent”
SHATAM, “hundred” CENTUM (CENT, CENTURY, CENTIME)
SVADU, “sweet”
TAT, “that”
TVA, “you”THOU,
It is quite unlikely that this ancient tongue, which Sir William Jones pronounced “more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either,” should have been the spoken language of the Aryan invaders. What that speech was we do not know;
we can only presume that it was a near relative of the early Persian dialect in which the Avesta was composed. The Sanskrit of the Vedas and the epics has already the earmarks of a classic and literary tongue, used only by scholars and priests; the very word Sanskrit means “prepared, pure, perfect, sacred.” The language of the people in the Vedic age was not one but many; each tribe had its own Aryan dialect. India has never had one language.
The Vedas contain no hint that writing was known to their authors. It was not until the eighth or ninth century B.C. that Hindu probably Dravidian merchants brought from western Asia a Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician; and from this “Brahma script,” as it came to be called, all the later alphabets of India were derived.” For centuries writing seems to have been confined to commercial and administrative purposes, with little thought of using it for literature; “merchants, not priests, developed this basic art.” ( Perhaps poetry will recover its ancient hold upon our people when it is again recited rather than silently read.) Even the Buddhist canon does not appear to have been written down before the third century B.C. The oldest extant inscriptions in India are those of Ashoka.” We who (until the air about us was filled with words and music) were for centuries made eye-minded by writing and print, find it hard to understand how contentedly India, long after she had learned to write, clung to the old ways of transmitting history and literature by recitation and memory. The Vedas and the epics were songs that grew with the generations of those that recited them; they were intended not for sight but for sound. From this indifference to writing comes our dearth of knowledge about early India.
रात्रिर्गमिष्यति भविष्यति सुप्रभातम्
भास्वानुदेष्यति हसिष्यति पंकजश्रीः।
इति विचारयति कोषगते द्विरेफे
हा हंत हंत नलिनीं गज उज्जहार॥
Night will be over, there will be morning,
The sun will rise, lotus flower will open.
While the bee inside the lotus flower was thinking thus,
The lotus plant was uprooted by an elephant.